EMDR FORUM ARCHIVE, 2000
Re:Complex PTSD & EMDR
Sandra Paulsen Inobe, PhD · 11/04/02 at 3:43 PM ET
The question is a good one and a challenge for anyone trying to detoxify the effects of chronic trauma conditions. Most people have to pace hte intensity and frequency of their trauma work so it isn't destabilizing. The single most important thing in my opinion however is to use consistent containment work at the end of each and every session where trauma processing has occurred or where deep work has opened things up. With dissociative clients, I use a two-step approach where the traumatic material is contained in a box or tupperware or similar imagery, and where any child parts of self that have been pulled forward get "tucked in" to a safe place with what they need with them. It is not appropriate for a therapist to do trauma work without containing the work at the end. Finally, even with containment, frequent processing can leave people raw. In that case the pace should be slowed so the material processed can be synthesized, and so the processing isn't retraumatizing.
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